The trophy from the first UIL high school football state championship game leaves Cleburne today to serve as the “star” artifact in the Texas State History Museum’s upcoming exhibit.

The silver trophy, awarded in 1920 to the Cleburne High School Yellow Jackets, will highlight “Texas High School Football: More Than the Game,” opening at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in late July.

Cleburne, as the state-qualfying North Texas champions, and Houston Heights High School, representing the South, met in Austin on Jan. 8, 1921, in the first, state championship contest organized and sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League. The game ended in a scoreless tie.

“The University Interscholastic League brought order to high school athletics in organizing this first championship game between Cleburne and Houston Heights,” said Tom Wancho, exhibit planner. “We were very excited when Cleburne agreed to loan the championship trophy to us for this exhibit.”

A photo of the 1920 Cleburne team and one of the 1899 Yellow Jackets will also be featured in the exhibit, which focuses on all the groups that are a part of Friday night football in Texas — from the teams to the cheerleaders, the referees to the bands.

“Players, coaches and legendary teams will also be a part of the exhibit,” Wancho said. “We will have lots of neat stuff that football fans, and non-football fans, will enjoy. This will be a multidimensional exhibit featuring audio, video and educational interactives along with a huge sampling of historical artifacts.”

Among the historic pieces to be displayed will be Davey O’Brien’s letter sweater, awarded to the TCU football legend during his playing days at Dallas’ Woodrow Wilson High School.

Also featured will be the first set of UIL football playing rules — all nine of them — and helmets from the 1900s to today, reflecting the evolution of Texas high school football, that nearly 100 years later, is still the star attraction on a Friday night.

The opportunity for a piece of Cleburne football history to take center stage is a major touchdown for the high school and community, according to athletic director and head football coach Phil Young.

“This is a piece of Texas history as well as a piece of Cleburne history,” Young said. “The first state championship football trophy is something the people of Texas need to see. It’s part of Cleburne’s legacy.”

“In Texas, football is so revered,” Young said. “To have that trophy is so special. It was awarded to Cleburne 91 years ago, and has been through so many hands, but it’s still in mint condition, which tells you how precious it is.”

Young admits he would love to travel back in time to see those 1920 Jackets in action.

“I wish some of those guys were still around, to hear the stories they had to tell,” he said. “The game has changed so much. It would be great to hear where the game was then and to tell them where it is going. I would love to time travel back to see those guys in that season and see the pride in their faces in winning that trophy.”

“I’m sure at that time they had no idea of the historical significance of that championship game,” Young said. “I think the unification of the state title is one of the most important things the UIL has ever done. What a state championship can do to a community is unreal. I’ve experienced that first hand — the excitement, the pride. I think the unifying of a community that occurs when their hometown high school wins a state title is the true legacy of that first championship game.”

Young is spot-on in his thoughts, based on an overview of that championship season, recorded in the 1921 CHS “Santa Fe Trail” yearbook, which devoted 22 pages to the coverage of Jackets football.  

“Cleburne High School’s part in athletics has perhaps done more for the advertising of Cleburne than has any other thing during the past few years. Besides her victory in the field, Cleburne High School has established herself as a leader in clean playing and athletics. No better aggregation of gentlemen can be found anywhere, and this record is one to be envied by any high school.”

The Jackets were 10-0 that year, described as the “longest and most successful in the history of the institution.” The championship tie with Houston Heights, said to be the hardest fought game of the season, was played in a downpour that never let up.

“We were outweighed practically 10 pounds to the man,” states the yearbook. “Their backfield, used to playing on a muddy field, was equipped with mud cleats and yet CHS held them to a scoreless tie.

“The team on this trip was accompanied by some 500 Cleburne fans. A special train was secured and the trip made in one day. There was much disappointment among the fans that the game ended as it did, but Houston was our equal on a muddy field. We are looking forward to another clash next season.”

Among Cleburne’s unsuccessful challengers that season were Fort Worth Polytechnic, Masonic Home, Meridian, Oak Cliff, Itasca, Grandview, North Side, Comanche, Bryan and Abilene. Cleburne won the championship of North Texas in its defeat of Bryan and earned its ticket to the state championship in a 28-20 win over West Texas champion Abilene. That game, according to the “Santa Fe Trail,” attracted the largest crowd in CHS football history with nearly 4,000 in attendance. It was also one of the most profitable, with Cleburne taking in a reported $2,800 in gate receipts.

Every member of the state champion Yellow Jackets made school and Cleburne history that season. One of those players, fullback and team captain Joe “Jo-Jo” Rhome, is still remembered 91 years later as the namesake of the first permanent home of Jackets football — Rhome Field.

The naming of the field was done in memory of the forever-young football player who died of rheumatic fever only months after that golden season.

“His passes were at all times true; on the defense he was a terror. His last year with us should be the banner year of his already glorious high school athletic career.”

Cleburne’s state championship trophy and many other treasures that represent the excitement, pageantry and hometown fun of a Friday night football game will be on exhibit July 30 through Jan. 22. For more information, visit www.thestoryoftexas.com/the_museum/texas-high-school-football-exhibit.html.